Hey everyone!! I've been reading and researching Aspergers for about nine months now. As an elementary teacher, I am familiar with ASD having educated kids on the spectrum. I never thought one of my kids would possibly be on it, but I think I have an Aspie, possibly two Aspies, as my youngest son is only 20 months, but going along the same path as my oldest.
My oldest, Jay is four years old. He will be five in August. He has always been a very precocious, smart kiddo. Loving, sweet, bright, he is just AWESOME!! He had a very hard birth, born with a platelet count of only 8K (normal is above 150K) due to a genetic disease we didn't know we had called Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia. Medically speaking, he shouldn't even be here!! Due to low platelets, babies with NAIT can begin to stroke out in their brain or have bleeding in their spinal cord or abdomen. A head ultrasound at 1 day old said Jay suffered no bleeds. Although he did have a lot of bruising around his ears and his left temporal lobe.
Anyways, I watched him like a hawk, worrying about any developmental delays, etc. He didn't have any. Very typical kiddo, he took his first steps a week after his first birthday and started really walking at 14 months, he talked at 1, started putting together phrases just before he was two and was talking full sentences at two and a half years. He's always been a very loving, cool kid. I didn't know at the time that liking lights and spinning things was a big deal. Jay always liked to "flick" toys that would spin around. He also discovered swtiches and buttons right before two years. From the age of two on, Jay could entertain himself walking around going switch to switch, button to button, and turning things on and off. I half heartedly joked that he might be a little Aspie.
Last May, my world got flipped on it's head, so to speak, when my mom and sister-in-law approached me with the idea that Jay could possibly be Aspie. He has a very detailed interest in everything. When he goes to a new place, he always points out different lighting features, smoke detectors, etc. He also had some sensitivity to noise as a toddler. The one thing I can remember he absolutely hated was the birthday song. Even if I sang it and we were alone, he would cry. At birthday parties, he would run to me and hide his face. He just hated it. As he got older, he told me the song scared him. Now that he's older, it doesn't really bother him, but he doesn't love it. When it's his birthday, he likes us to sing it but with the words "Happy Birthday to you, you live in a zoo, you look like a monkey and you smell like one, too!!" (But he says toot instead of too, because he thinks that's funny.
Other than the birthday thing and the obsessiveness with all things mechanical, he's never really had any other issues. He is very social, which is why his pre-k teachers don't think he's really an aspie. He has lots of friends, plays really well, he's not overly shy. He will definitely feel out a person before he starts chatting them up, but once he's warmed up to someone, he will converse easily. He's also very good about social chit chat, understanding the give and take of convo's, etc.
But he's got some of those Aspie gifts: an eye for detail, obsessive interests with mechanical things (loves to work on cars with daddy), an almost photographic memory, he can learn things SO fast, etc.
At first, I was so upset at the idea that my kiddo could be on the spectrum. I think you hear the word Autism and you kind of freak out. But for as much as I've read on here and on other sites, Aspergers doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal. In all honesty, there are many gifts in Aspergers that I think it's not a disease or syndrome, but can to a certain degree be a blessing, since Aspies seem to be so genius.
I have some kiddos in school that are Aspergian. They have more of the social deficits than what I've seen in Jay, that makes it more obvious, but they are brilliant kids and very loving in their own ways. I don't know. I know I've babbled quite a bit. I haven't sought out an exact diagnosis. Our district diagnostician doesn't think he would fully qualify or that at this point he needs any special modifications since he's doing just fine in Pre-K. He has a late Summer birthday, so he will probably go to a Pre-K program next year for those early kids and start Kindergarten the following year. Anyways, I just wanted some insight on ways I can help him with some of his obsessive/repetitve things. Does he even totally sound Aspie? I can't tell. I go back and forth every day with whether he is only Gifted, Aspie or 2E.
06 Jan 2012, 1:48 pm
